Rick Wayne

What readers are saying online: “Really grabs you and doesn't let go!” “Almost the perfect blend of mystery and science fiction.” “The story keeps pulling you forward.” “Easily on par with the best near-future sci-fi I’ve read.” In the decades after tomorrow, the intersection of emerging technologies like AI, gene editing, and 3D printing gives ordinary people unprecedented power to remake themselves and their environment, which they use for frivolous, dangerous, and even sinister ends. After a series of high-profile calamities, the U.S. Congress passes the controversial Science & Technology Control Act, which licenses and regulates the practice of science. While serious infractions are rare, the increasing number of extraordinary threats are investigated by the Science Control Agency's secretive Section 08: Crimes Division The Zero Signal After a stint in federal prison for trying to save the world, Nio is done with the spotlight. She spends her days in front of a computer, quietly helping others with problems no one else can solve. When a case turns unexpectedly deadly, she travels to rural America to stop a hi-tech psychopath who tortures his victims via their own devices. Arrested by mistake, she's given a choice: return to prison or assist the investigation into the unexplained death of a renowned physicist—who happens to be her brother. Shackled to a disgraced FBI agent assigned to protect her, Nio and her new partner soon discover her brother's strange obsession with the paranormal may have been a cypher for something darker still. Pursued by his shadowy enemies and dodging the twisted affections of her rival, Nio has just days to discover the truth. But in a world made plastic by technology, truth is never the same twice. “The imaginative worldbuilding, the complex characters and the sheer scope that’s both shown and at time hinted at, reveal a world that both breathtaking and scary.” -reader review “Given that a lot of cyberpunk tropes have long become reality, the question is where to go next. This provides a convincing answer.” -reader review “The dialogue between the characters is something special. Each conversation not only advances the plot but also opens a window into the characters themselves. The natural way characters interact with each other, even in the more fantastic scenes, is just very believable and it’s really easy to become attached to them.” -reader review

The Zero Signal

"A unique brand of justice, morality, and heroism." "Gripping, immersive, entertaining." In Episode One . . . Beaten. Burned. Broken. Capt. John Regent returns a paraplegic after escaping months of captivity and torture — except no one knows who took him or what he disclosed. When a government agent comes for answers, she discovers John's fantastical secret and sets him at war with his own country. But the veteran in the wheelchair has one last mission, and he'll fight off the powers-that-be long enough to save the life of a troubled soldier — even if it costs John his own.

Breakout

The Minus Faction - Episode One

"Singular characters, believable dilemmas, adventure, brutality, beauty, and action." -Editorial Review In Episode Five . . . Team is a four-letter word. While the wounded heal and attempt to evade capture, the Faction's mission is finally revealed and John obsesses over the identity of the Prophet. But when his investigation uncovers a betrayal, the team must face the devastating truth of their origin, and everything they’ve accomplished falls apart.

Aftershock

The Minus Faction - Episode Five

"Crackles with energy and promise." In Episode Four . . . The gang’s all here. After an early success bolsters the team’s confidence, they scatter to their own ends over John’s heated objections. But when a botched mission leaves a city of millions without power, they struggle to protect the people they’ve put in harm’s way, while under cover of darkness, their enemies strike a killer blow . . .

Blackout

The Minus Faction - Episode Four

"Taut, thrilling entertainment." "What a freaking ride!" In Episode Three . . . After losing his girlfriend and his job, Ian Tendo's sensible life has fallen apart. When he's arrested by the FBI, he doesn't imagine things could get any worse. That is, until dark forces recruit him to be an agent of terror. Forced to commit horrible acts in secret, Ian knows death is close — either at their hand or his own. But unexpected help comes in the form of an eleven-year-old prodigy. Wanted by the police and pursued by a living nightmare, the pair's only hope is a mysterious organization known as the Minus Faction.

Meltdown

The Minus Faction - Episode Three

"The writing is intense and vivid. I'm thoroughly intrigued." "The pacing is perfection." In Episode Two . . . Xana Jace keeps her head down, which isn't easy when you stand seven feet eight inches tall. She works the night shift and stays out of trouble, striving only to be reunited with her son. But she's running out of time. The strange disease that compels her body to grow also threatens to choke her heart. When a masked gangster terrorizes the small community that shelters her, Xana is left with a terrible choice and just twenty-four hours to discover the truth that everything she believes is a lie.

Crossfire

The Minus Faction - Episode Two

Capt. John Regent returns a paraplegic after months of captivity and torture—only no one knows who took him or how he escaped. Xana Jace strives only to be reunited with her son. She keeps her head down and stays out of trouble, which isn't easy when you stand seven feet eight inches tall. Ian Tendo's sensible life has fallen apart. After losing his girlfriend and being arrested for terrorism, he doesn't imagine things could get any worse—until he's beset by an eleven-year-old prodigy with a foul mouth and an ambulance full of high explosives. One by one, all four are recruited by an enigmatic mastermind, known only as Prophet, who offers them everything they want in exchange for the impossible. But team is a four-letter word. After a botched mission reveals a plot to hack the human race, they discover a betrayal by one of their own—and realize that not all of them will survive. THE MINUS FACTION is a super-powered speculative thriller about extraordinary abilities and how not to use them. Collected here for the first time in its entirety, this special omnibus edition includes all seven episodes as well as bonus material not previously available in print.

Complete Omnibus Edition

The Minus Faction

Shockwave

The Minus Faction - Episode Six

One part mystery. One part savagery. Three parts magic. Years ago, driven by greed, men penetrated the last soft places on earth. Out of the clear-cut jungle—out of nowhere—a man appeared, eyes rimmed in blue. The last shaman. A man who could make magic. Across five stories, five victims of the inexplicable narrate strange encounters with an enigmatic titan, a man without a past. Caught in his decades-long battle with an unseen foe, each is given the power to alter human history—or end it forever. To the White of the Bone (cont.) A mangled body floats to the surface of a reservoir with nothing to distinguish the victim save for a binding knot branded under her tongue. The case is routed to the NYPD’s resident occultist, an uncompromising homicide detective whose history of unusual and uncertain results has left her career in shambles. Dodging an inquiry into a fatal shooting and pursued by a homicidal witch, she contemplates a devil’s bargain to stop the killer, who just may be the Lord of Shadows.. The Song on the Green One by one, the children of an upscale Pennsylvania neighborhood are found crippled and catatonic, their minds seemingly vanished. As the panicked community searches in vain for a human predator, they neglect the only witness, an eight-year-old boy with a menagerie of strays, who is left to stand alone against the very creature that hunts him. Bright Black After carelessly killing an innocent, a beautiful aristocrat is cursed with eternal youth. Forced to endure as waves of friends and loved ones wither and fade around her, she wanders the ages in search of meaning—from the wars of Napoleon to the Victorians in India, from the Great Depression to the collapse of the Iron Curtain. Recruited as a spy in an occult war, she soon tires of blood and loss and retreats to a small village in the mountains, where an accident reveals missing memories and the ghosts of her past rise to remind her that the mistakes of five lifetimes are not so easily fled. Part urban fantasy, part magical whodunit, FEAST OF SHADOWS is a five-course occult mystery and the most devilish meal you’ll ever read. The complete epic conundrum is available in two parts.

Rick Wayne

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